Bible in One Year: Where am I?

If you've been following along with some of my previous posts, or on Instagram, then you'll know that 2019 was the year I was going to complete Bible in One Year. It's been a while since my last update (Job) so I thought I would let you know how I'm getting on.

First up, let me say, I did fall off the wagon a bit during the summer, and I don't think I'm going to catch up. So let's get the stats out the way - I'm currently 63 days behind. To put that into perspective, I'm in Isaiah when I should be starting Matthew chapter 1 TODAY. Yup, I'm meant to have tipped over the New Testament divide and I'm waaaay back in the prophets. But that's ok, progress over perfection, right? I'm getting there, and as someone who's never read the Bible cover to cover, I'm excited to keep going (and who knew I'd be here nine months in, right?!).

So, last time I wrote about this I was in Job (cheerful, huh? It gets better, trust me). Let's go on a whistlestop tour of my progress since then:

Psalms

Being a literature lover I've always loved the Psalms. Problem is, there's so many of them, and with my previous record of sporadic bible reading, I had never quite managed to read all of them. So there, I've achieved something. On the flip side, the plan that I'm on really packs them in and so I don't think I took as much in as maybe I could have done - reading eight a day doesn't give you much chance for pondering and absorbing what you've read! It has inspired me though, and once I've completed BIOY, I'd love to go deeper into the Psalms. Psalm 119 is still a fav.

Proverbs

Honestly, I struggle with Proverbs. As a literary device it's pretty rubbish, right? No narrative, just a huge list of sayings which may or may not be helpful at the time of reading. I found the Bible Project videos really useful for this one, because it put Proverbs in the context of the other wisdom books - Ecclesiastes and Job - which gives a much more holistic picture and allowed me to understand a bit better that whilst there is much wisdom to be found, they are not guarantees to a perfect life, and that's ok. Another thing that helped was discovering #PrayingThroughProverbs by @VickiCottingham on Twitter. Vicki (amazingly) tweeted a prayer each day for each chapter which helped me to focus in on what the verses were actually saying and how they might apply to my life. I even wrote each prayer in the margin of my Bible next to the relevant verses - it was so helpful to me! Kudos to her (there's a rumour she's putting them in a book - watch this space... ETA BOOK NOW AVAILABLE HERE).

Ecclesiastes

I didn't think I would like Ecclesiastes, it's a bit depressing, right? But I actually really enjoyed it. Maybe it's because I'm naturally a bit of pessimist so I could relate to those feelings of futility and recognise that much of life is futile (apologies to all the eternal optimists out there!). But I've never really understood Ecclesiastes because it seems to contradict some other things in the Bible - again, thanks to The Bible Project, I was able to understand the context and realised that actually there's much wisdom to be found, and if you read it all and then understand the conclusion to the book then actually it makes a lot of sense - enjoy the moment, live in the now, be present, value the gifts that God has given you, because tomorrow, they might not be here, and there's actually much beauty to be found in that.

Song of Songs

Hmmmm, I'd like to say that I loved the poetry and the beauty that there clearly is to be found in Song of Songs, but this might be one I have to come back to. I just didn't 'get it' - I mean intellectually I got it, but it didn't resonate much with me. Sorry. Maybe it's culturally so different, maybe our society has ruined intimacy for us, maybe it's that my love language is most definitely not physical touch... I don't know. If anyone would like to point me in the right direction to any great resources on Song of Songs then do feel free - willing to learn!

So there you have it, I'm now in Isaiah - still in the 'naughty Israel' bit and looking forward to the 'wings of eagles' bit. I'll let you know how I get on!